Boris Yelensky

Boris Yelensky (17 February 1889-18 June 1974) was a Russian anarchist propagandist who was known for his activities both in Russia and in the United States.

Biography
Boris Yelensky was born to a secular Jewish family in Krasnodar, Russian Empire in 1889, and he began reading socialist literature at the age of 12. He participated in the botched 1905 Revolution against the czarist regime, forcing him to emigrate to Philadelphia in 1907; he learned English and Yiddish while he was in the United States. In 1913, he travelled to Chicago and became involved with the Red Cross, serving as the Anarchist Red Cross' secretary from 1913 to 1917. In 1917, he returned to Russia via Japan to take part in the Russian Revolution, but he was imprisoned twice and deported in 1923 as a US citizen, as he was an anarchist and not a Bolshevik. From 1925 to 1936, he headed the Chicago Aid Fund, and he ran the Free Society until 1957. In 1959, he moved to Miami and became secretary of the Simon Farber Memorial Fund, and he died in 1974.